THE TRIP

Ch 5- Day 1 (Part 2)

Mayu, having done with her suitcase packing episode, opened the door of the washroom and jumped a few steps back. Cupping her nose with her hands she exclaimed "Ewwww, this washroom seriously stinks. Holy crow! It smells like rotten eggs!". Angy and I immediately thurst into the washroom. I stiffened up. Our room had the smell of silica, to be more perfect, it smelled of sulphur. I slightly nudged Angy. "I smell the atmosphere gross. Do you?" I asked her.
"Yeah, I smell it the same way Sam." Angy's voice quavered. Somebody from outside tried to be nice and switched on the lights. Immediately the smell was gone. I  saw Angy. She was white as marble. I think it was the first time I saw her pale in the last 10 years. She was shaking with fear as she was standing in front of me. Her hands were cold as ice. She gripped on to me for support.
The school's lady Hitler was looking like a scared little puppy. "Calm down!" I shushed her. She shook her head, "Yeah. I have to act cool" she gulped the lump from her throat. "There's nothing wrong in here" I announced strongly to the other four who were waiting anxiously outside the washroom door. "But I did smell the stink!" Mayu complained to us.
"Maybe some poor animal out there died and is stinking!" I tried to give her logic with a quavering but confident tone. I knew that it was courage that could only help us out of this danger we had headed into for four long days. Angy had already got out from the washroom. She was very nervous about the stink.
I was about to return when I noticed blood smeared in the basin. There was also a bloody tissue paper on the floor of the washroom. It was leading to the commode of the washroom. There in that commode, lay blood and a half boiled egg.
I gasped but controlled myself. 'Who did this?' I thought. I flushed the commode and told Mayu to give a call to the service boys so that they could come and clean up the washroom. The ward boys came in and apologised to us for the inconvenience and the became busy in cleaning up the washroom while we sat down doing absolutely nothing, other than staring at each other .
With the next 25 minutes, everything and everyone was back to normal. We were seated on our respective beds and chirpy mood. After closing all the windows some sat down to text whereas some simply scrolled through their feeds and some posted pictures giving cheesy captions and I picked up my phone to call my mom. We talked endlessly.
It felt as if it had been eons since I've seen her. Giving her every details and keeping back the unwanted ones, I kept my phone down with a smile on my face and wished everyone a goodnight and got to sleep. It was actually a long day for me. I don't know for how long I was asleep, but my sixth sense made my senses awake.
I waited for a few moments and then my eyes snapped open. The dim lights of the room were on. I felt someone was walking around our bed. At first I felt somebody from the other four was up for washroom. (Four because Mani was beside me, sound asleep). I remained stiff. I felt a wave of sadness wash over me.
'This feeling isn't good' I thought. At a certain point of time, I felt like giving up on my life. Never in my life I have felt so depressed the way I had felt for those few minutes that night. A question popped up in my mind ,"What if it wasn't one of my friends?". The moment this question came to my mind,I began to sweat. I cooled myself and chanted ,'Be brave Sammy, Be Brave.' I exhaled a deep breath to gather courage.
Wearing my specs I rolled over to see the condition of the others.
I noticed Mayu seated on her bed, still scrolling through her feed on Facebook. Angy and Vas deep in sleep. "Ashme, ate you awake?" I asked in an audible tone. Startled with shock or fear, I couldn't make out in that dim light, in a quavering tone I heard Mayu's feeble voice "Yes! She was awake a few moments ago. She just closed her eyes minutes back." "Oh! I am so sorry I scared you." I apologised.
"What are you doing,awake in this late hour?" I asked. "Nobody would believe me if I say this, but Sam, I actually felt that someone was watching me when I was trying to sleep. So I just sat up, it's already 3:50am anyways."
"Devils hour" I murmured deep under my breath.Without wasting anymore time,I woke up Mani, we both got up squeezed ourselves within the spaces between Mayu and Ashme and Angy and Vas respectively. Within a few minutes, I drifted off into deep sleep with the tiredness from the long bus journey, weird mental pressure and the erratic edgyness of my sixth sense.